A pregnant woman has full breasts through the change from colostrum to mature milk for a first week after giving birth, and next, the quantity of the breast milk is gradually decreased within three to five days. If the breast milk is not fed to her baby, her breasts become hard and hot painfully, which is developed to breast engorgement. So as to prevent the breast engorgement of the mother, breastfeeding should be frequently carried out 8 to 12 times per day, and if the breastfeeding is not conducted at a proper time, the breast milk should be forcedly expressed from her breasts. So as to forcedly express the breast milk from the breasts, breast pumps (or milking machines) are generally used.
Generally, the breast pump is a device for forcedly expressing the colostrum produced after delivery or the breast milk remaining after the breastfeeding. In accordance with the pumping types of the breast milk, the breast pump is classified into a manual breast pump for expressing breast milk through the compression of a pipette-shaped vacuum ball and an automatic breast pump for expressing breast milk through an electric pump. In case of the manual breast pump, the pipette-shaped vacuum ball is pressurized periodically by one hand, and a funnel-shaped adsorption unit coming into contact with the mother's breast is taken by the other hand, so that the breast milk is expressed from the breast. However, a quantity of breast milk pumped is relatively small and a large force is consumed to express the breast milk from the breast. Recently, the automatic breast pump has been widely prevailed.
In the same manner as the manual breast pump, however, the automatic breast pump has inconveniences in use because the funnel-shaped adsorption unit should be taken by one hand during the breast pumping, so that she does not do anything during the breast pumping. Further, both of the manual breast pump and the automatic breast pump are used in the state where the mother's body is exposed to the outside, and accordingly, they are used only in her house or given place and cannot be used in other places, thereby having many limitations in the use thereof.
So as to solve the above-mentioned problems, there have been proposed hands-free breast pumps having various structures coupled to bras in such a manner as to be worn on a mother's breast to freely conduct breast pumping, without being taken by her hands, and for example, such hands-free breast pumps are disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-0947668 (dated on Mar. 8, 2010), Korean Patent No. 10-1333536 (dated on Nov. 21, 2013), U.S. Pat. No. 8,137,153 (dated on Mar. 20, 2012), U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,453 (dated on Nov. 13, 2012), U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,377 (dated on Jul. 20, 2004), U.S. Pat. No. 8,192,247 (dated on Jun. 5, 2012), and U.S. Pat. No. 8,500,679 (dated on Aug. 6, 2013).
According to the conventional hands-free breast pumps, however, a strap or a bra-shaped structure is needed to allow an adsorption unit to come into contact with a mother's breast during breast pumping, thereby increasing the volume of the breast pump, and some of the hands-free breast pumps require the breast pump-only bras or other clothes, thereby raising the cost for purchasing the breast pump. In case of some of the hands-free breast pumps, further, a hole is punched in the bra to allow the adsorption unit to come into contact with the mother's breast, and a breast milk vessel is located at the outside of the bra, so that as the quantity of breast milk pumped is increased, the breast milk vessel becomes inclined forwardly, and accordingly, if the breast milk is stored by given quantity in the breast milk vessel, the breast milk vessel should be taken by her hand, thereby still having the inconveniences in use thereof.
On the other hand, other conventional hands-free breast pumps are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,702,646 (dated on Apr. 22, 2014) and Korean Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-2011-0009666 (dated on Jan. 28, 2011), wherein the breast pump is located at the inside of the bra of the mother, without having any bra-shaped fixing device, thereby lowering the manufacturing cost thereof and removing the inconveniences in use thereof. In case of the hands-free breast pump as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,702,646, however, an adhesive material is additionally needed to allow the adsorption unit to come into contact with the mother's breast, thereby raising the manufacturing cost thereof, and in case of the hands-free breast pump as disclosed in Korean Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-2011-0009666, an attaching force to the mother's breast is relatively weak, thereby still having the inconveniences in use thereof.